Preparing for the next generation

I spent much of this afternoon in the garden, mowing and tidying up, Whilst doing that I noticed a leaf cutter bee dragging a newly cut leaf fragment into one of the tubes in a bee “hotel”. So I took a 15 minute break from gardening and had a stake out. Not easy - the bee arrived with no notice, and then rather than posing conveniently with its leaf (give us a wave) it was straight in. So I was quite pleased to get any sort of shot.

Each tube is full of cells, each lined with leaves, and stopped up with leaf material. A final leaf fragment seals the tube.

The bee wasn’t cutting the leaves from plants in our garden but heading elsewhere. Apologies to the neighbours. The bees favour rose leaves, but are ignoring our two roses for the time being (not fresh enough). Their incisions don’t damage the plants health, and are cut neatly creating distinct semi circular patterns.